A circle with a radius of 2 units has its center at $(0, 0)$. A circle with a radius of 7 units has its center at $(15, 0)$. A line tangent to both circles intersects the $x$-axis at $(x, 0)$ to the right of the origin. What is the value of $x$? Express your answer as a common fraction.
Explanation: To begin, we can draw a diagram as shown: [asy]
size(150);
draw((0,8)--(0,-8),linewidth(.5));
draw((-4,0)--(23,0),linewidth(.5));
draw(Circle((0,0),2),linewidth(.7));
draw(Circle((15,0),7),linewidth(.7));
draw((-2,-4)--(14,8),linewidth(.7));
draw((0,0)--(1.3,-1.5),linewidth(.7));
draw((15,0)--(10.7,5.5),linewidth(.7));
label("\tiny{2}",(-.5,-1));
label("\tiny{7}",(14,3));
[/asy] By drawing in radii to the tangent line, we have formed two right triangles, one with hypotenuse $x$ and the other with hypotenuse $15-x$.  Notice that the angles at the $x$ axis are vertical angles and are also congruent.  So, these two triangles are similar, and we can set up a ratio: $$\frac{x}{15-x}=\frac{2}{7}$$ $$7x=30-2x$$ $$9x=30$$ $$x=\boxed{\frac{10}{3}}$$